{"id":46085,"date":"2015-07-23T22:30:59","date_gmt":"2015-07-24T04:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=46085"},"modified":"2015-07-23T15:20:45","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T22:20:45","slug":"mahinda-caused-massive-losses-for-ports-minister-arjuna-ranatunga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/07\/23\/mahinda-caused-massive-losses-for-ports-minister-arjuna-ranatunga\/","title":{"rendered":"“MAHINDA CAUSED MASSIVE LOSSES FOR PORTS”- MINISTER ARJUNA RANATUNGA"},"content":{"rendered":"

By M D P DISSANAYAKE<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

It was a comical appointment of making Mr Arjuna Ranatunga as the Minister for Ports and Shipping by Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe.\u00a0 He has complained that the former President has caused massive losses for the Port.<\/p>\n

We have few questions to ask Minister Arjuna Ranatunga, they are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Do you understand the difference between Profits and Losses?<\/li>\n
  2. Do you understand the difference between the Cash Flow Surplus and Deficit?<\/li>\n
  3. Do you understand why a business can make a Profit, yet it would have a Bank Overdraft?<\/li>\n
  4. Do you understand why a business a can make Losses, yet it would have have a blue balance ( positive balance) in its Bank Accounts?<\/li>\n
  5. Are you able to understand the difference between Group Consolidated Financial Reports and Financial Reports of each entity within the Group?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    We ask these question due to several valid reasons.\u00a0\u00a0 After becoming the Minister for Port, you have tried to study these reports.\u00a0\u00a0 You were very annoyed to notice that some entities within the Port Group had Profits, but Bank Statements showed Overdrafts.\u00a0\u00a0 You were similarly annoyed that some entities within the Port Group had made Losses, yet Bank Statements showed Blue Balances.<\/p>\n

    You did not waste anytime to show the Port Financial Management Team that they have made some massive errors in the preparation of Financial Reports.\u00a0\u00a0 You called for a Management Meeting of all key Financial Management Team Members of the Ports Authority.\u00a0 You will remember asking them , ” Why Hambanthota Port\u00a0 had positive bank balances, yet made losses” .The key Finance Management stakeholders were shocked\u00a0 by your question, but were\u00a0 unable to explain the reasons.\u00a0\u00a0 Perhaps the participants were reluctant to cause an embarrassment to the Honourable Minister.<\/p>\n

    One of his sympathisers in the team, explained the reasons to the Hon. Minister at the conclusion of the Meeting.<\/p>\n

    Minister Arjuna Ranatunga then complained in public that\u00a0 financial reports of various projects under his control cannot be analysed due to lack of information.\u00a0 According to the statement made by him in public, he was planning to set up a new system so that each Project will have its own financial reports to measure the performances.<\/p>\n

    Separate Financial Reports had always been the norm at Sri Lanka Ports for the past several decades.\u00a0 The problem was with the Minister’s inability to read and understand the reports.<\/p>\n

    Mr Arjuna Ranatunga had a lucky draw of joining Ananda College, where his mother was a Teacher.\u00a0 However, academic brilliance was not his strength, barely managed to pass\u00a0 the G C\u00a0 E\u00a0 (Ordinary Level) after two attempts.\u00a0 Even if you have not academically qualified, as a Minister you should listen to your advisers and learn from them.<\/p>\n

    “You can blame people and situations for your misery, hunger, deprivation and illness, but you are the only person can be blamed for your illiteracy.\u201d
    \n<\/strong>\u2015\u00a0<\/strong>M.F. Moonzajer<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>LOVE, HATRED AND MADNESS<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By M D P DISSANAYAKE It was a comical appointment of making Mr Arjuna Ranatunga as the Minister for Ports and Shipping by Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe.\u00a0 He has complained that the former President has caused massive losses for the Port. We have few questions to ask Minister Arjuna Ranatunga, they are: Do you understand the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-m-d-p-dissanayake"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46085\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}